Manager Research

Ashburton Investments bought Atlantic Asset Management in January 2016.  Since then, the funds have continued to be managed under the Atlantic brand using BCI as the management company.  As part of the final phase of Atlantic’s integration into Ashburton, the three Atlantic funds are undergoing the following changes:

Atlantic BCI Stable Income Fund:

The name of this fund has been changed to the Ashburton Stable Income Fund. There have been no other changes and the fund has retained its track record. We currently have a Tier 3 rating allocated on this fund, which we have decided to leave unchanged.

Atlantic BCI Enhanced Income Fund:

The Atlantic Enhanced Income fund had underperformed peers and the market materially over the last two years, mainly due to their exposure to illiquid Edcon and Abil bonds, which became an increasingly large proportion of the fund as investors pulled assets. The fund has been closed down but the strategy will continue in a new fund called the Ashburton Diversified Income fund. The historic performance of the Enhanced Income fund will therefore not be carried over. Considering that this is a new fund we have decided to remove the rating until such time that we can review the team and the process.

Atlantic BCI Real Income Fund:

Ashburton issued a ballot to investors in November 2017 requesting permission to merge the fund with the Ashburton Targeted Return fund. The ballot was unsuccessful and after reviewing their options Ashburton elected to wind up the fund. Consequently, the fund is closed to new investors and existing investors have until 21 June 2018 to either switch to another fund or redeem their units. After this date, the remaining assets will be liquidated and returned to investors.

The table below summarises the changes: